Intense emotions as Southerners decide on their future
Emotions came to the surface when the widow of the late Dr. John Garang, who led the Sudan People\'s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the Southern liberation war for 21 years, broke down in tears after voting in an ongoing historic secession referendum.
I am a widow because our freedom has robbed me of my husband and children.\"
But Rebecca Nyadeng was not the only one to feel overwhelmed. Many others shed tears as they remembered their lost ones who were killed in the war between the Arab-dominated North and largely Christian South, between 1983 and the beginning of 2005. I am a widow because our freedom has robbed me of my husband and children. They were all killed in front of me here in Juba. Now freedom is coming, but I have no one to enjoy this freedom with. All my children and their father were killed,” Norah Deri said.
Norah, composing herself as she spoke to journalists, said she chose separation, rather than the continued unity of Sudan, when she cast her ballot. I want the Northerners and Southerners to be separate because if we are united we shall continue fighting. We need to separate and each of us mind his own business because you can’t tell me to be an Arab when I am an African,” she said.
Let this war end, we were born in war, we produce children in war - why? We need peace and this is the time, we are choosing peace,” she continued. Asked what she would expect from the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) if the outcome of the referendum is secession, Norah replied: I need a democratic government where we are treated equally without tribal discrimination. The government should also look after the widows, orphans and the disabled.\"
After getting underway on Sunday, voting is taking place all this week across Southern Sudan. The polls are set to close on Saturday January 15.
\"I couldn’t believe I would reach this day; that I am choosing for my future and remembering my lost friends.”
Another voter – calling himself Garang - wrapped himself up in the South Sudanese flag, after putting his voting slip in the ballot box. He walked through the exit of the polling centre and kneeled down to pray. I am very happy today that God has brought me up to this hour and I have chosen for what my great grandparents died for,\" he explained.
Jackson Oduho, a former refugee, remembers how he walked from his village in Eastern Equatoria to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. In the camp I used to say it was better for my friends who died on the way than me who remained. I couldn’t believe I would reach this day; that I am choosing for my future and remembering my lost friends”, Oduho said.
Emotions and hopes for a newly independent nation state are high. But if independence is achieved, one of the new government’s biggest challenges will be meeting the soaring expectations of the people, in a region bedeviled by poor roads, a lack of health facilities and few formal jobs.
